On the 12 Days of Christmas, My True Love Gave Me
by MidnightxMirror
Summary: Cards? When May thought of Christmas, a scavenger hunt was hardly what came to mind.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon.**

May threw her arms in the air out of frustration. _I have no idea. . . _she sighed. Frowning at the small card in her hand, she flipped it between her fingers as one might a coin. May regretted taking the challenge, for this was harder than any contest she had been in yet. Figuring out Drew was a difficult thing to do. _This would be easier,_ she thought, _If I just knew where he was! Why does he have to make things so difficult?_ The brunette wandered over to a snow covered bench and brushed it off before seating herself.

_Flashback_

_"So Drew! What are you doing for the holidays?" May asked innocently. Drew shrugged nonchalantly. "Dunno...being stuck in a mansion all day isn't my idea of fun." _

_May frowned. "But don't you want to be close to your family? Share gifts and go carolling and eat candy canes and drink eggnog and-" Her rambling was cut short by a hand covering her mouth. Looking up at Drew, she saw his unamused look. _

_Scowling, she quickly grabbed his hand and removed it from her mouth. "What is your problem? I'm only asking you what your doing for Christmas and you cut me off? I'm only trying to help give you something to do!" _

_Drew could tell by looking in those crystal blue eyes that he had her fuming. 'A little bit more...' he thought. "I'm smart enough to come up with my own ideas, May. Maybe you should let me do some of the talking? I don't ramble, and am better than you in contests, which is why you should be listening instead." _

_May's fists clenched tightly like she wanted to punch that smirk right off of his face. She was trembling in rage, trying to keep herself from doing just that, debating if regretting it later would be worth the action or not. The expression of fury on her face could be compared to that of a Gyarados. Drew's smirk only grew before taking one of her hands in his, uncurling her clenched fingers and pressing a thornless red rose in her palm. _

_Sapphire eyes opening wide, she could only stare at her hand as she tried to comprehend what Drew had just done. Wasn't he arguing with her just a moment ago? Gah! Why does he need to make things harder than they have to be?_

_May tried to keep her calm when she looked back up at his smirk. "Fine , then what do you think I should do?"_

_"I think that I should challenge you, just to see how long it takes you before you realize I've won." _

_The brunette decided it a good idea to attempt to beat him at his own game. Oh, the look on Drew's face when he sees that she has been right all along! She could see it now. . ._

_"What kind of a challenge?" She had a grin slowly creep onto her features, alerting the chartreuse-haired coordinator that she was planning something. Having a complicated plan in mind, he held confidence in his abilities for this challenge. _

_"This." Pulling out a small card from his jackets pocket, he quickly scribbled some words on it. He slipped the card into her own coats pocket, then looked to the setting sky. "The first day of Christmas starts tomorrow. Get some rest, and then open the card in the morning when your ready. I'll be waiting..."_

_Before May could understand what was happening, Drew was already gone, a wisp of his warm breath lingering for a few seconds longer in the spot he stood only moments before. Slowly smiling, before turning to head for the pokemon centre, the wind carried a gentle whisper. _

_"See you then..."_

_Flashback Ends_

So here she is, in the cold, sitting on a snow covered bench, in plain daylight, and still cannot find him. The corner of her lip twitched. A simple riddle should NOT be this hard to figure out. Maybe she was just overreacting? Letting out a long sigh to calm herself, May opened up the small card and looked at it again.

_A place of many vendors,_

_where people waste their money. _

_Walk through many aligned shops, _

_and you will find it funny._

_I laugh at the wares that wont sell,_

_Like assorted weeds of the sea._

_But you will have to search here,_

_If you expect to find me._

May furrowed her brows in deep thought. Many vendors...yes. Aligned shops... ok. Seaweed? That was the part that gets her. In her mind, the first two things make you think of the mall, right? Well, the mall doesn't sell seaweed, so that kicks it out of the picture. Usually at the mall you buy cloths too, which is money well spent, not wasted. _But maybe to Drew..._she snorted in amusement. As much as Drew finds shopping bothersome, on rare occasions he would admit it useful for SOME things. But if the mall doesn't sell seaweed, where IS it sold...?

May snapped her fingers. '_That's it!'_ her mind screamed. '_Why didn't I think of this sooner? The market! It has many trinkets Drew naturally would find useless, and seaweed is sold there!'_ Fire returning to her eyes, May immediately jumped off the bench, only to groan seconds later. The market was on the other side of town... and it was already afternoon! She better hurry if she expects to find Drew! Sighing once more, she sprinted off twords the market.

Reaching there by late afternoon, May panted while leaning on her knees, soon just giving up altogether and falling down. After a few minutes of catching her breath, she _slowly_ rose to her feet. Winding around all of the shops, she soon found herself flustered. She already knew there was a lot of shops, so instinctively walked over to where she saw seaweed and thought it a good idea. . . until she caught the smell. Like the scent of dead fish slapping her in the face, she pinched her nose shut, trying to brave the smell. Little did she notice the figure watching her from his perch on a building.

_'Typical,'_ she growled. '_Of course Drew would have to make me go through something stinky and back for a simple piece of paper. Probably so he can later tease me about how bad I smell, comparable to my skills. '_

With each step closer to the stand, May frowned a little more. '_How can that vendor look so...happy? He must be oblivious to the smell... maybe he is unable to?'_ Atleast that thought lightened the mood somewhat. Ignoring the vendor, eyes as deep as the ocean searched through piles of seaweed. Finally finding a lavender coloured card, May plucked it from the side of the smallest pile and got as far away from the water plant as possible. Reading the slightly smudged ink on the top part of the folded card, she read the words: Open tomorrow.

Great. So **that's** what he was planning. He was planning to make her hunt for a card for each of the twelve days of Christmas! If May's family was in LaRousse, this would have ended now. But seeing as she long ago made the decision she did not want to go home for the holidays, claiming that it is time for her to live her own life, that wasnt an option. As she had no other better ways to spend her holidays, she supposed it was something to do. But May also knew this would require a lot of running around on her part. '_I wasn't joking when I said to Drew that I want to prove that I can beat him, or be an equal at the very least. But knowing him, do I really want to run around for twelve days to probably wind up finding him at the place I started?'_

May unconsciously walked back to the pokemon centre she was staying at, kicking small pebbles about and unaware of their clicks off the pavement. Yes, she decided, she would do it after all. It would generate some interesting memories, and at the same time give her an excuse to be close to him once she found him. She thought of the first thing she would do when she got there.

Stepping in her room, May immediately took a shower. Being around seaweed for even the slightest amount of time can shock you with how bad it smells. Not only that, but the smell tends to stick to your cloths. And hair, leaving you smelling awful. It even made May _feel _dirty. If she ever wanted to find Drew, it would unquestionably have to be when she was presentable. Drying her hair and dressing in her pajamas, May drifted into a deep sleep, one word ringing softly through her mind like distant bells.

_Drew..._


	2. On the Second Day

**I'm happy to see all of the lovely reviews! I didn't expect to get any so quickly. To all who did, I see you, and I thank you :). Now, on with the show!**

May woke stretching her arms and yawning big. After rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she grabbed fistfuls of the soft blankets and threw them off of her, planting her feet on the floor. Stepping across the warm rug, she groggily stepping into the bathroom. Looking in the mirror, the brunette could see her disheveled hair and ruffled Torchic pj's. Slowly changing into her typical emerald garb, she ran a brush through the legnth of her hair and carefully tied on her green bandana. Being fully awake now, May fluffed the pillow she slept on and neatly draped the blankets over the bed again. Making sure she had the needed possessions on her person, she lightly closed the wooden door behind her with the echoing click of metal.

Drew couldn't resist. Always being an early-riser, he climbed a tree and stopped on the lowest branch. Twisting himself to sit on the branch behind it, he set up his perch for the morning. He peeked between leaves to hide his form, predicting May would naturally go to the table closest to the window. He couldn't help but smirk when he saw he was right. His emerald eyes followed her every movement as she layed down her breakfast tray and gloves next to it, resting the card he had left for her to find the previous day on top of them.

The sight of the sunlight illuminating May's gentle features enchanted him, but he knew he had to stay focused on the prize he was waiting on. He had already hidden the other card, in a most opportune place. Though he wanted May to search for it to continue his game, he hated seeing dispair cross her face. On that note, he had hidden it in a place where May could have fun and kill time while she was at it, but hide him at the same time.

Consuming the last bite of her eggs, she sipped her orange juice and inched her hand tword the toast. Her eyes never left that mysterious card. Tension undoubtedly built with each flutter of her eyes tword the card. May didn't want to open it during her breakfast because she would be distracted by her food. She also planned on eating slow and politely because the feeling of being watched never left her.

Atlast finishing the buttered toast, May wiped and dusted the crumbs off her, the last remnant of her breakfast. Putting the tray away and washing her hands, she walked back to the table and put on her gloves. She leaned on the wall as she unfolded the card. She was surprised to not find a riddle like last time, but a semi- blunt statement non the less. It read:

_This place has food and many games. It involves roller coasters. Not even YOU could be that dense, May. The next card is hidden in the biggest stuffed bear you will see in your life. Good luck finding it._

_Have fun, _

_-Drew_

May had her moments, but Drew was right. May instantly knew he was referring to the faire. A light smile crossed her lips. She was happy that Drew had been thoughtful enough to send her to a place where she could search and have fun doing so. Just the thought excited May.

'_I get to play faire games AND find the card at the same time? This is the best card yet!' _Then another thought entered her mind, which made her equally happy.

'_If he's going through the trouble to amuse me while I play his game, then maybe he likes me back? To be leaving me such things, he'd have to keep tabs on me to see if I am still taking his challenge, or at the very least plan to see me at the end of it. Either way he could be near me.' _She beamed. '_Maybe this isn't so bad after all. . . '_

Stepping through the big gates, May marvelled at the size of the faire. It was bigger than most she had seen. Though she was a little disappointed to see the electronic rides had understandably been shut down for the winter, the other games at small stands still remained. May couldn't help but laugh when she pictured a magicarp in a bowl , freezing it's scales off. That thought out of her mind, she looked around at the numerous dotted stands. They all only sold stuffed animals, but May didn't see a giant bear. May had earlier thought that he might have hid the card in plain sight, but it now become obvious that he had other plans in mind.

'_If he came here earlier to hide the card, then maybe he had managed to talk to one of the people at the stands. If that's the case since I don't see a giant bear, it's possible that Drew could have the bear stashed at one of the booths, saved for me. But to have it saved the person running the stand would have to have my description. Then that means. . . I have to play every game and win the top score to find out.' _

May had no problem with that. She thought it was a rather fun way to spend her day.

May beelined to the closest booth. This one was for darts. She immediately recognized the white and red swirled board with balloons and numbers. The man smiled at her nicely and handed her a handful of darts. Taking one of the small darts in her hands, May started to sweat. '_I was horrible at this game as a child'_ she thought. Whenever she threw a dart, it would magically bounce off the balloon. She would have to throw with more force.

Taking a step back from the booth, May closed her right eye and leveled the dart to her other. Swaying the black and red dart back and forth, she hit the balloon in the first ring at the top. She tried not to panic. Four rings down and she would have had it. Now instinctively throwing the darts at the board, May had hit one other balloon, and had the magority of the darts hit between rings. She had to calm herself down as she saw her last dart. Inhaling deeply, she stepped back once more and leveled the dart. If she had hit the highest balloon the first time, she moved her hand slightly to her right and down a few inches.

Steadying her quivering hand, She closed her eyes and threw the dart. She heard the telltale pop of a balloon. Opening her eyes, she saw the man grinning at her and the middle balloon gone. Her uneasyness was quickly replaced by happiness, a small squirtle plushie held in her left hand. She had triumphed one game, but what about the other three?

The second game had cans stacked on eachother. Three lined on the bottom, two on the middle row, and one proudly on top. May grinned. This game was easy, and she had always been good at it. Her confidence certainly only helped her. Laying the plushie down on the counter and rolling the three tennis balls she had received from hand to hand, she bounced one and snatched it up. With one toss she took the top three out, the ball striking right in the middle of the three cans. Her second throw had taken out two cans, and her remaining ammo downed the last can. The woman smiled brightly at her, handing her a small poochyena doll. The doll had very soft fur, one May planned on snuggling with.

May couldn't tell what the next game was. The line of people was so big she couldn't possibly hope to see around them. Not even at the booth, since more than one person was allowed to play at a time. She dreaded the thought of waiting in a huge line, but she thought that this popular game might have her prize.

Waiting for a long time at the back of the line, it started to snow. May pulled up the hood of her red jacket and sighed. The people at the front were sure taking their time. May wasn't even completely sure if they had moved yet. Glancing at the last booth, May decided it would be best if she played that one and came back later. By the time she was finished, the line should have dissipated, atleast a little bit.

A man sporting a purple jacket watched as her boots crunched and kicked up already present snow, heading to the last booth, and lost himself in the crowd.

There was only a few people in line at this one, so the time waiting in line had gone by relatively quickly. This game was for fishing. You dipped the line of the toy fishing rod in the pond, and an operator behind the game would attach a prize to your lure. May knew this game obviously couldn't be the one she was looking for, but she played anyway. Grasping at the wooden pole that served as a rod, she carefully lowered the lure into the hole. The rod coming up seconds later, May had won a simple plastic goldeen. No big deal.

Getting back in line at the game she had previously waited at, she saw the line wasn't much better off then when she had got there. The line was slow, and she was impatient. May looked around for something, anything to distract her from her wait. She had noticed that it was late afternoon, and many more people had poured in. The beginning games were completely full, in as big a line as she was in now. it comforted her a little to know that she didn't have to wait for those.

The line was so long that by the time she had gotten to the booth, it was evening and most of the people had left to go home for dinner. It was THAT long. Of course May had been fuming most of the time, and she had somehow managed to lose her previous prizes but the poochyena she kept half-hidden in her coat pocket. She didn't really care though, for those prizes wern't the giant bear she was looking for.

Playing a Duck Pond game, she realised how random it was. The ducks had numbers at the bottom, and the prize you received was purely by luck. May didn't want to waste time, so she didn't hesitate to ask the person at the counter what the highest number was. They replied with an '80'. May waited as she watched the ducks spin, but looking at the water she realized something.

There was a small mirror at the bottom, and if you angled yourself just right, you could see the numbers at the bottom of the ducks. Waiting for a full spin and flinching her hand many times to fool the person at the stand into thinking she wasn't cheating, she finally grabbed the orange duck with the 80 at the bottom. The person clapped and handed her a teddiursa doll. It was a bear of sorts, but it wasn't big.

Becoming frustrated for the countless time that day, May made her way out of the faire. '_Great. I didnt find the doll, and the faire is closing soon.' _The brunette came out of her thoughts by bumping into a machine. Getting to her feet angrily, she stared it down. She noted that it was one of those drag and drop games. Decided she had nothing to lose in the ten minutes she had left, she inserted a coin and moved the robotic arm. Not caring too much for what she gets, she lowered the device at the back and grabbed onto a deep brown ear. The device accordingly pulling the prize up at May's whim, dropped a heavy stuffed pokemon so the player could retreive it.

May was fiddling with the loose strands on her green scarf to notice what she had gotten. Pulling on a dark brown leg, May could barely get the prize out of the machine. Tugging furiously, she fell backwards with the prize on the ground. Sitting up and crawling over to the prize, her mouth hung open as she saw a giant Ursaring plushie. Slipping her hand into the hollow mouth, she felt the rough texture of paper. Grabbing it and pulling it up, she found what she was looking for. May's eyebrows furrowed. '_How the hell did Drew even manage to get this bear in the machine in the first place?' _May's pink lips curled into a frown. '_You know what, I don't even want to know.'_

Buying a burger on the way out for her dinner, May ate it on the way back to her room at the pokecentre. Placing the ursaring on the floor against the night stand with the card in it's lap, she jumped into bed with her poochyena doll.


	3. On the Third Day

"mmmmmf. . ." May mumbled. It was 6:32 o'clock in the morning and she didn't exactly want to get up. She would have slept in like usual, except...this morning something went awry.

Someone was persistantly banging on her door. At 6:32 in the morning. Annoying, right?

"Go away!" May hollered. Reaching for her soft pillow, she held it tight against her ears.

_It's a crime that people have to wake up this early..._

"MAY!" Her guest spoke a little louder.

"What do you want?" said girl snapped. This early, wouldn't you be cranky?

"You need to get up quick! Hurry!" her visitor said with mock panic.

"Whyyyy...how are you even awake, whoever you are?"

There was a small snicker as someone looked through the peephole to her door, May forgetting to cover it on her way to bed last night.

"But May! Your goldeen escaped! They're on top of the tank!"

The boy dangled a plastic goldeen toy, even though May couldn't see it. If she could, she would recognize it as a prize she had previously won.

"WHAT?" May yelled. Her goldeen were drowning...in AIR? Unacceptable!

May jumped out of her bed, and started charging tword the door. She was half asleep and didn't notice one very important detail, though. When she flew out of bed to stand, her poochyena doll went flying, too. So naturally, she tripped over it on the way there.

Explosive laughter was heard on the other side of the door. Oh, how easy it was to trick her! And it got better and better.

If the heat from May's face could melt things, the floor would be gone. Face down, she got up quickly and dived for the door knob. Her other hand unlocking all of the locks on the door, she swung it open with all the might in her hand...to notice the laughter, and person, gone. May's eye twitched. Must she be pranked this early?

Recalling the voice, it was her favorite coordinator with the infamous smirk. Though he had pranked her...he proved a point May was wishing.

He _was_ keeping an eye on her!

That thought made her smile, dispite her so-far awful morning. It was only enforced when she saw the rose at her feet. She picked it up and absentmindedly twirled it in her hand while she leaned on the door frame. Should she go after him? He had been here a moment ago, he couldn't possibly have gotten too far.

On second thought, maybe he had. She was sure a fully awake Drew could outrun a sleepy May.

With a light sigh, she stood back and closed the door. The brunette still had no idea why Drew wanted her awake this early, but went along with it anyway.

In minutes May had become presentable and had done all of her daily chores.

Closing the door behind her, she read the card on her way to the lobby. She suddenly froze and twitched. He got her up **this** early for _this_?

On the card was one simple word: _Park._

May gritted her teeth in anger. '_He got me up early, too early for breakfast to even be available yet, to drag me to the park. Well, if he wanted to send me somewhere romantic, he could have atleast went with me!' _she thought bitterly.

Storming through the lobby of the pokemon centre, she zipped up her jacket and tied on her scarf. May could see tiny snowflakes falling through the windows and knew what to expect.

As soon as a foot had left the door, May heard a crunch of snow beneath her and felt a strong and cold wind whip at her body. May shivered a bit and tied her scarf a little tighter. Though it was always a bit colder in the mornings, it usually was beautiful.

May saw the faintest line of light on the horizon, but the snow still blanketed in darkness. The very thin line of light was just enough to not make the snow farthest from her blind her, but instead make it gently shimmer. This gave May inspiration for the next contest she entered.

Walking along a path that had been shoveled the previous night, she made her way to the park. The sight was beautiful as a light cushion of snow covered the paths, even the snow on trees shimmering. Light snowflakes had landed on May too, and with the help of the slowly rising sun, gave her a slightly ethereal look.

She didn't expect to see anyone at the park, and expected the card to be illegible at best. There were no real places in a park that you could possibly hide a small slip of paper without getting it dirty or wet in some way.

Following a long and winding path, when May actually reached the middle of the park, she saw a figure. A _green _figure. It looked like it was playing with the frozen sand. Trying to sneak up on Drew, May crept as quietly as was humanly possible with snow under foot. Positioning herself behind Drew, she yelled his name to surprise him...

...and was very disappointed to see that he didn't even so much as flinch. May expected as much. Drew turned his body to face May, but she soon found it wasn't Drew at all. It was his Roserade in his jacket and hat. The pokemon smiled kindly at her presence, and held out it's red and blue bouqeut of roses. May took the small piece of paper it held between her mitts and put the card in her pocket.

Roserade looked to be freezing. Grass and ice don't mix. A pang of guilt shot through May's chest, and she refused to leave the poor pokemon there.

Unzipping her coat and picking up Roserade, May put it close to her to share heat before zipping her coat back up. The Roserade seemed a bit confused, but came around soon enough. The head of the pokemon sticking out of her coat, May walked in the direction that Roserade nodded twords.

May looked quite satisfied. Not only had she done a kind act for a pokemon, but now she also got to go find out where Drew lived, knowing Roserade wouldn't last very long by herself in the cold.

May's mouth gaped wide when she saw just how big the mansion he lived in was. When May thought it was big, she actually meant _huge_. She couldn't help but wonder what Drew's parents could possibly do for a living. She was torn from her thoughts by feeling Roserade squirm.

Sheepishly unzipping her coat and lightly assisting Roserade to her feet, May rested her hand on the door to open it for the pokemon, but stopped. She had an idea.

"Roserade," May cooed. "Do you happen to know where Drew goes swimming?" Drew's Roserade chirped happily at her sweet voice, and pointed her the directions in the house to the mansion's pool through the window. May opened the door widely for Roserade, and whispered a few words to it. The pokemon grinned widely and nodded before closing the door with it's foot. May couldn't scramble to the pokemon centre fast enough.

Rushing through the doors of the pokemon centre, May ignored the stares of the other visitors and jumped the steps to her room, two at a time. She was tripping over the carpet just to get to her room.

Running through her door, she stumbled to put on a green material under her cloths before charging out of the door seconds later.

Ten minutes later, May jumped up the stairs to Drew's porch. Roserade had managed to get the door open and led her to the vacant pool. Throwing her cloths outside the nearby sauna Drew had around, May smelt the cholorine in the air before she jumped in the pool. She was wearing a light green, one-piece bathing suit.

Roserade was doing her job by attracting Drew's attention. She kicked his swim trunks at him, suddenly blinding him, if only momentarily. Drew nodded quickly and bounced the trunks off of his face to land in his hand before glancing at the digital clock to his left. He turned back to Roserade. "You're right, it's just about time I went swimming." Roserade tried her best at a smile.

Following her master through countless corridor's and down multiple flights of stairs, Drew was soon in his small changing room and saw a pile of cloths outside a thick wooden door. Raising an eyebrow at it, he quickly managed to guess who they belonged to. It also wasn't hard from the laughs and splashes coming from the pool.

Opening the door to the pool room, Drew stood there for a few minutes before May caught on that he was watching her. Brushing her soaked strands of chocolate hair from her face, she looked to Drew with eyes deeper than the water itself. As much as Drew longed to stare into her eyes, he simply turned and walked off.

Seeing Drew begin to walk away, May left small puddles on the floor as she ran after him.

Hearing heavy footfalls, as planned, Drew quickly made his way up to his room. He tried to make his footsteps heavier and tried to laugh louder than a chuckle, all to throw her off. It worked when he realized that by the time he reached his room, May was no longer trailing after him. Revenge was sweet.

After awhile, all the walls seemed to look the same to May. She was lost in but one of many hallways. It was a labyrinth to someone who didn't know where they were going. The only way May could possibly remember where she was was by checking all of the rooms, which were thankfully empty. She had no bread crumbs to follow, so this was all she had.

Seconds turned to minutes as May was engaged in a chase scene you would find in Scooby-Doo. May wouldn't be surprised if she was running in squares around the estate.

Roserade had no trouble locating May with the slamming of doors. Stomping her foot in the carpet was how she decided to catch May's attention. The girl couldn't have looked happier. "Roserade! Do you know where Drew is?" May was practically begging. She didn't think she even cared anymore, she just didn't want to be lost. She thankfully followed the nodding pokemon.

Instead to Drew's room, May was led back to the sauna, back to where her cloths were. All the same, May dried her hair and changed back into her cloths, thankful to be somewhere she remembered. Once Roserade found May dressed, she handed her a folded note before she left.

May opened the piece of lined paper and was surpised when she saw some money fall out. Confused in the blink of an eye, she read the note over. Not once, but twice. She couldn't believe the words she was reading.

Most would say her face was tinged red from the cold, but it was far from it. With one mitt in her pocket, May wandered around the town and walked into a simple establishment for something warm.

It's funny how much time you could spend lost in a mansion. Doors everywhere and the same wallpaper. May had given up as easily as anyone if they were in her shoes, but she couldn't just stay there. Things would be too awkward having to explain to your crush's parents why you were lost, and why you were there in the first place.

May was starving, and rightfully so. The sky was already beginning to darken when she had left. However, she had something to show for it. The note Drew had given to her depicted an apology, albeit a smug one. She had wanted to prank him first, so it was only fair. Her wild plan of soaking him and having the classic splash game and running away wasn't exactly going to work with cold weather.

Not only did the note say an apology anyway, but he had left a bit of money because he wasn't completely heartless. Not to someone he loved, anyway. He knew that the reason she would be ravenous was his fault for dragging her out of bed so early and keeping her occupied, so he gave her the money to pay for whatever she planned on getting to eat. His kindness did not go unnoticed, to say the least. The content squeel from the girl proved that.


	4. On the Fourth Day

If May had to choose anywhere she would want to be pranked, it certainly wouldn't be here. Especially not on a dark and cloudy day, such as this one. Of all times, it had to be today. She was beginning to _really_ wish that just maybe, Drew could find out the weather _before_ he sent her into the worst place in LaRousse?

Looking up at the building, May was instantly frightened. It took a lot just to go down the same street this place was on, let alone walk right infront of it.

The huge mansion had a wooden porch with four steps. The second May's foot connected with the first plank, it shattered. Trying not to lose her balance, May bent her knees.

After making sure she was on solid ground, she pushed on the second step to test it. Nothing happened. Taking a little comfort in this, she hopped up the steps, never staying in the same place too long for fear that she would be let down a second time.

Securely up the steps now, May glanced at the house and only now saw how truly scary it was. The place was black, but from what May did not know. The mansion had many windows, all of which were smashed; the only remains that proved windows were once there was the pointed and shattered pieces of stubborn glass still clinging to their sockets.

Twisting herself over the railings to the wooden porch, she looked into an opening where a window had once stood. The furniture was clearly old; it had patterns and designs she didn't recognize.

Not to mention the layer of thick dust on everything.

But, there was always the lingering feeling that something had been there. The walls were covered with scratches, and the backs of some chairs were utterly destroyed. Like something had taken a bite out of them. Something big.

May couldn't help but think that whatever had managed to destroy the backs of some chairs, that it possibly might still be there. Even the air was thick, like a lair you knew you wern't supposed to be in. It could have just been her own fear, but she felt like it was hard to breathe. She wanted to go back to the poke centre and just ask Drew for another card, but she could never get that lucky.

"Aww, scared, May?" The brunette didn't bat and eye. She was twice as scared of the mansion as she could be of Drew's wrath. Had she ever seen it, of course.

Why was Drew there? Simple. He wanted to make sure May didn't chicken out. If she did, he would never let her hear the end of it. He also, perhaps, wanted her to move twords him every time she got scared. Which was hopefully a lot.

Looking at the broken step, Drew smirked as he leaped up the steps in a single jump. Once she had turned around and he was sure he had her attention, he smirked and flicked his hair. "May, have you been eating too much lately?" May fumed. "I'm not fat, thank you. The plank was loose, and I'm sure if you had gotten here first, you'd break it, too." He laughed.

Drew had always heard that the things you should never mention to a woman would be her weight and age, but he liked to think those rules didn't apply to him.

"Well, May, go ahead. Open the door!" She hesitated. Was she really about to go in there? A cold chill crawled up and down her spine and her fingers slowly wrapped around the cold golden door knob. May didn't want to push on the door, but had to with prompting from Drew. Nothing could have prepared her for what she found.

"Ahh!" May screamed. She covered her eyes and immediately turned around to bump into Drew, but at this point, she really couldn't care less. The chartreuse-haired boy could hardly contain his laughter, but rested a comforting hand on her arm and felt her shivers. He swatted her fear away.

"Really May? A mansion alleged to be haunted and _this_ is what scares you?" May could barely nod from her shaking. "They're so scary!" Drew sighed. "I guess arachnophobia is a girl thing." May was too afraid to hit him, but when consoled by the fact that it was gone, she slowly turned around and moved her fingers apart.

'_Whew_," she thought. Not even the cobweb was left standing by the mighty weapon that was Drew's hand. Speaking of the coordinator behind her, May kept getting a finger jabbed in her back as _encouragement_ to keep moving.

May felt like the wooden floorboards were against her by squeeking 10 times louder. It was like each time she took a step, they were mocking her.

Not only was the air in the mansion thick, but it smelt strongly of mold. Since the windows were basically gone, rain easily gets inside. Same with snow, as it was now.

May looked around the room as she took long and torpid steps. Though the living room was much bigger than the small pieces of furniture in it, it was somewhat obvious that the place had been robbed of all valuables. It wasn't exactly hard to get in.

There was only one thing of mild value in the room, which was a small couch for one. The cloth was old and tattered, with rips protruding from underneath the cushion. She wouldn't be surprised if an army of bugs found their way in it. From then on, May made the silent promise to not touch anything.

Besides the table and scattered chairs, May also noticed a fireplace. She would have liked to light it, but she shuddered at the complications. Was the heat really worth the possibility of alerting whatever made this place it's home aware of their presence? In an attempt to comfort herself, she thought that the heat would go out the windows anyway.

Since she couldn't have the fireplace lit, she tried to shrink further into her jacket. Stopping and taking off a glove, Drew stopped with her and passed her curious looks. Clutching a red and white orb in her hand, she threw it in the air and a waterfall of yellow glitter announced the arrival of a tall pokemon, the same colour of the container it was released from. Blaziken's company comforted May, but she missed the slight frown on Drew's lips.

As the trio made their way twords the kitchen, it wasn't out of the ordinary. It was exactly as they expected. The place was relatively normal, if it wasn't for the open cupboards. Burglars get hungry, too. The kitchen had a glass back door, but didn't lead to any other room. The thing that got to her, though, was the quick flash of a shadow going up the stairs.

May didn't hear the whimper she had choked out, but she felt herself stepping back into warm arms. The hands attached to them didn't have claws, but all the same May wasn't complaining. Blaziken now fully understood the intention here, but took not a drop of offence. It understood it's purpose, and offered no complaints, either.

Though Drew released May, she had insisted on holding his hand. She didn't want to lose him. Drew's frown soon turned to a triumphant smirk, which was not lost on Blaziken. His midnight scene of eyes didn't miss the shadow, either.

Drew had led May twords the stairs. He tried hard to soothe her protests, but wanted her to get the card he had hidden there. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. As amused as he was, he had to admit that looking at May's dramatic fear, he felt a pang of something intangible. Was it guilt? Was _the_ Drew Hayden feeling guilt?

A point for May.

She _begridgingly _was stepp- _dragged_ up the stairs, and was led into the farthest room to the right. Drew kept an arm around her to calm her shaking body, and opened the door with the other. Drew's breath was caught in his throat, and Blaziken stepped infront of them. This certainly wasn't how Drew had left the room the day before.

This room was actually a bit homely. It had a lot of furniture. Nice and neat.

Well, it was.

Items were tossed around the room like an exorcism gone wrong. All the furniture was layed out on the floor, nothing left standing. Water was dripping from where no one knew. Drew knew it was common knowledge that the card was burried in the mess somewhere, but could care less. The only thought that was branded in his mind was to get May out of there.

He wrapped an arm around her back and behind her knees, picked her up, and unceremoniously fled. He jumped down the stairs, and tossed open the door like a rag doll. He slammed it behind him, and put May down, hands on his knees, panting.

May, however, was not as grateful as he had intended. Her shoulders bobbed as she was filled with sobs. With every tear it looked like a part of her blue eyes was drained with it. Too weak to stand, she crawled to the door and clawed at it like a cat. Her fists banged on the door, and slid as she shook.

Drew bent and held May, allowing her to collapse in his arms. "May... I'm sorry."

With a burst of adrenaline, Drew fell back a bit as May tugged at the door like a wild animal. She refused to lose a companion that was with her since the beginning.

Her effort was in vain though, as the door was tugged open, sending May falling, but was caught by orange arms. Her Blaziken was not going down just yet. With inhuman strength, Blaziken threw May over it's shoulder and draped Drew over the other. Closing the door with it's foot, it charged it's best friend back to the poke centre.

That was definitely an experiance May did not want to relive, but was just thankful to be somewhere safe. Letting Blaziken rest for it's effort, she stumbled to her room like a drunk. Her vision was doubled from the previous tears shed, needing Drew as an assistant. She now could no longer sleep in the dark, and understandably so.

Drew tucked her in and stayed with her until she drifted off from simple exaustion. He fell asleep sitting against the wall.

**Hooray! Attention Contestshippers! I'm planning on making a thriller / horror story after this one, and this was a sample of what I had come up with. Should I author it? Send me reviews or PM's! **


	5. On the Fifth Day

Drew awoke to his bed of a bumpy white wall. The first thing he noticed was how sore his body was. Especially his back. His mouth formed a tight frown.

_'I hurt from sleeping... how do you mess that up?'_

Standing up, he brushed himself off, also trying to straighten the wrinkles his cloths have gained in the process.

From facing down, he had to flip the green strands of hair from his face. Getting a clearer look at his surroundings, the floodgates came crashing open as the awful memories from yesterday resurfaced as he glanced at May.

He certainly hadn't meant for things to turn out that way. Really. Disaster must have had it in for him. Whatever that monster was, it wasn't there when he had walked in. It, whatever 'it' was, probably anticipated a return if it had saw someone leave as quickly as entered; especially leaving something.

Naturally, leaving an item, you'd come back to retreive it. What a clever beast.

He picked up his emotional battle where it had left off yesterday, forming a checklist of sorts. The checklist of wether or not it was his fault.

Did he want to scare her? Well, that's why he chose the place. He had good intentions, though. But either way. . . **check.**

Did he hear the rumors about the mansion being haunted? **Check.**

Did he know there was a lot of hiding places for people and pokemon alike? **Check.**

The worst of all. . .

*Flashback*

_Drew was thinking of possible locations to lead May to. Tapping the end of the pen between his fingers on his mouth, he went through his options._

_The mansion seemed like the best place. It had a spooky element to it, it was claimed to be haunted, people have stolen from it, and the cherry on top, it was a bit unstable from the weather gradually eating through the structure of the large house. _

_A grin creeped on his face. However, he was not alone in the decision making process; he turned to his partner in crime._

_Turning his head to look at such partner, he asked her opinion._

_Roserade furiously shook her head and waved the roses on the ends of her arms. She clearly disagreed with that thought. _

_Drew frowned. "What's the matter with the mansion, Roserade?"_

_After hearing the pokemon say it's name, and in different syllables, he deducted that she disagreed with his choice for the exact reasons he liked it._

_Partner in crime? Maybe not. _

_Growing frustrated with the chance that he could be wrong, he returned Roserade to her pokeball. As it seems, he cared more for May being close to him than he did danger._

_Though that was sweet, it wasn't a smart advance. _

_*_Flashback ends*

He foolishly had not heeded the warning of his pokemon, to disastrous ends. Ignoring safety for love was a foolish move indeed.

_'What's the point of love,' _ he thought bitterly, '_if you lose it before you truly have it? To death non the less!'_

He could see his end at the hands of another entity, due to the fact that he fails to acknowledge danger. (**A/N: Epic foreshadowing!)**

If he kept it up, he could possibly define '_Till death do us part.'_ It seems maybe pious people wern't as full of it after all, he mused.

Sighing, he turned around and opened a squeeky drawer in the nightstand next to May. He flinched at the sound, but quickly turning to May, released his tension to see it hadn't affected her.

He had to set another event for them today. Though normally people would want to shut themselves indoors after such events, he decided it could only help May to take her mind off it. Where could he take her as an appology?

He sauntered over to the window and thought a moment. The snowflakes fell sloppily, and his breath appeared in circular white whisps against the crystal-clear glass.

His frozen breath gave him an idea.

Outside it was cold. Cold meant cuddling. Cold and fun...?

Such a place existed, and in easy range from where May and himself were at that moment.

The only problem is he would have to get cleaned up a bit first.

Scribbling down a quick note on a piece of pad paper, he hovered over May, intending to place the sticky line on the paper to her forehead, only to pause.

She was cute when she slept. Her face held a look of child-like innocence. Her hair fell every which way, and her mouth was slightly parted as she inhaled gentle breaths.

The sight brought a genuine smile to his face, but that still wouldn't stop him from exiting in a way that defined him.

He promptly stuck the note to her forehead as he left for his own home to clean up.

May had awoken normally. A soft pillow under her head, fluffy blankets protecting her in a veil of warmth, and the occasional damp circle under her mouth. Also a rare itch.

Reaching up and scratching at her forehead, when she drowsily brought her hand down, she noticed paper stuck to it. Upon seeing the paper, she became aware that Drew had remained with her the previous night.

She blushed. May really hoped she didn't snore.

Holding the note a foot from her face, she tried to focus as the words eventually stopped swirling and became legible.

Crumpling the note and throwing it into the garbage can across the room, she hastily made her bed, picked out her cloths, and engaged in grooming herself. Though it seemed time slipped by in half-hour intervals, she felt herself panic a bit more with each passing. Though this was definately one of her more later arrangements, she couldn't help but to feel desperation rise in her. Being late for meeting the one you love was always a woman's nightmare.

Though May wasn't quite sure if this was to be considered as two friends or a date, she tried to dress nice anyway.

She wore a pair of jeans, her normal runners, a red tank top and red sweatjacket. She also wore a necklace that she kept hidden away for special occasions, a topaz as blue as raindrops. Though she did want to dress up a bit, she didn't want to dress too fancy. Inappropriate dressing would not only embaress you, but also earn you a lot of stares.

May wasn't fond of stares.

Drew wasn't hard to spot waiting for her. His green hair not only stood out, but the fact that he was also standing in the open helped.

They had a half hour to kill. May saw chocolate and instantly had ideas.

Purchasing a chocolate bar as small as the ones you receive on Halloween, she hid the candy in her pocket, like a flash of lightning. Drew didn't know what she was planning, but it couldn't possibly be pretty.

May thought it was her time to be tricky. Drew thought he should stop May before she embaresses herself.

"Ok, here's the plan. We go into the unisex bathroom that parents usually go into, and you pretend to look annoyed. That shouldn't be too hard for you. Have a look on your face that is the telltale expression an annoyed man would feel twords a woman who takes too long. While you are doing that, I will mash up the chocolate in my hand, stick my hand under the stall and ask if anyone has any toilet paper."

Though the absurd prank had made Drew heartily laugh, he didn't want to let May embaress herself. . .

. . . as funny as it would be to see the looks on people's faces.

At first he had thought she wasn't serious, but now he knew she quite meant what she said as she took confident strides twords the washrooms. Grabbing her arm, he halted her advance.

"May... don't."

"Why not? You laughed, so in a way that is an agreement."

"What if your plan goes wrong and your embaress yourself? Don't do it."

May grew annoyed with his protests. If she was going to wait, why not make it more bareable?

"Fine."

Drew hoped that was enough to stop her, but wasn't holding his breath as he saw her walk into the women's bathroom, where he was powerless to stop her. What was the matter with him, anyway? He _lived _to embaress May. Oh well. He just plopped down on the nearest bench and let the games begin.

When May had securely gotten into a stall, and grinned as she saw chatty women outside of occupied stall and couldn't hear her unwrap the candy, she went into action. Still carefully watching their movements as she broke the bar in half, when she crushed it in her hand, she noticed the worst possible flaw;

The chocolate was caramel filled.

Now her plan was ruined and she had caramel all over her hand. Walking out of the stall to wash her hands, certainly humbled a bit, but atleast the women there had left before she managed to further embaress herself.

Drew saw May emerge from the ladie's washroom with her head down. He chuckled as he predicted something would go wrong.

"Told you so."

"Shut up."

As the two bought their tickets and entered the theatre, they were pleasantly surprised to see that the theatre was nearly empty. Besides themselves, there was only five other people in a room shadowed by darkness. Now the question was for seats.

The brunette wanted to test the waters with Drew. Something about being almost alone in a giant room with Drew gave her confidence. She tried to pick a place where she could flirt with Drew without gaining attention to herself.

May didn't know what Drew was thinking, but she knew what she was thinking, and that was at the top left corner of the theatre. She dragged Drew accordingly and sat down in the vacant area. Drew, however, did not see things her way.

"May, let's not sit here. If we do we will see the screen from an angle and will have to look from left to right. Don't you want the best view?"

Not wanting to get on his bad side, she followed him two rows down and in the middle.

"Isn't this better?"

She had other ideas, but wasn't about to just tell him that she wanted to hit on him the entire length of the horror movie she had chosen. Though she did want to see it because she enjoyed pleasurable terror, forgetting the previous days scare, she did the only thing that came to mind.

May remained silent.

She had always heard that actions spoke louder than words. She agreed with this. The movie was excellent at building suspence and anxiety, which could scare you more than the actual scenes of horror themselves. Because this was acheived with ease, May never missed her chance to snake her arm around Drew's and huddle closer to him, in pretend and real fear.

Drew didn't say a word, but simply moved his arm closer to her for better access.

Success!

His lack of complaint spoke volumes. He even moved a bit closer himself, though from what she couldn't tell. If it was for her benefit and his agreement, that would be great. If it was from fear, she knew she would never get such an admission out of him.

That went on the duration of the movie. May also thought it was sweet how at parts, Drew would lean down to her ear and whisper jokes. They never failed to make her giggle.

To further May's amusement, Drew had also started mock flailing and pretended to be scared at the end of the movie. When the lights turned on, May couldn't resist.

"That was your fault."

They both chuckled. Something May will never forget though, was as they were leaving the theatre, Drew had offered his arm out to her. Her cheeks were dyed red, and she accepted leaving on his arm.

After the movie, the duo went to get lunch. What May had done surprised him. He had gotten a burger to be manly, and fries. Who doesn't like that combo? He also had a great and muscled figure, so junk food here and there wouldn't hurt.

May, on the other hand, acted like she was abducted. She would have normally gotten the same thing, but not today. Instead she had ordered a sandwich with no cheese and on whole wheat bread, like she was a health-conscious old lady. What was wrong with her?

The truth of the matter is that May didn't want to eat a lot infront of Drew. She wanted to eat healthy to have a nice figure, and the movie certainly didn't help. The main woman in it and her sister were stunning. Gorgeous. Dark curly hair in a flawless frizzy diva style. It wasn't her hair that bothered May, but their figures were what did it for her.

She also ate her food in small nibbles. Drew was becoming more flustered with each nibble May took. He could easily guess what had caused May to act this way, but didn't mention it for fear of the confrontation making it worse. So, he attempted more subtle measures.

"Here May, I have too many fries." He pointed them twords her. "Take some, if you'd like." May eyed the fries with longing, but declined. "No thank you, I'm fine."

The stubbornness of this girl amazed him sometimes. He flinched as he returned the fries to their previous position, facing him.

"Are you sure?"

He heard a strained agreement.

Never before had he wanted to throw his arms in the air this badly. Helplessness bothered him.

After that, he had taken May to just wander around the town. They did all sorts of activities, and he lead May to a part of town that most tourists tended to miss. It had some of the funner activities there. Plus a mall. He knew May couldn't resist that.

He never forgot that women loved shopping. When growing up, his mothers escapades never left his mind of why he never wanted to go in one. He wanted May to be happy, but...

...it didn't necissarily mean he had to go with her.

Since he was loaded, he just silently agreed that he would send May some amount and let her run with that.

When the sun was setting, Drew smiled at May and looked in her eyes.

"I had a lot of fun."

May agreed too, leaning on the fact that it was probably a date more than anything else. Not that she was arguing.

"As did I."

Pumping energy into her legs, she smiled back at Drew and managed the unexpected. She pecked Drew on the cheek and bolted. Turning her head back to look at the shrinking figure of him, she saw him turning around and walking the other way. His home wasn't in that direction, so she didn't know what he might be doing.

Oh, how she would have loved to see the look on his face.


	6. On the Sixth Day

**Sorry for the long wait! Don't kill me, but I'm slowly losing interest in the story. However, that doesn't mean I will stop writing it. Also, a thanks to all of my reviewers. This wouldn't be up without you !**

**While I'm at it, Disclaimer tiem!**

**I do not own pokemon. **

A light breeze played with May's hair. Her sapphire eyes looked the LaRousse shopping mall up and down. It was incredibly large. She'd like to bet it looked even better inside.

Come to think of it, the mall seemed to have two floors. Oh, what they could possibly sell!

Women usually go shopping, with the acception of the poor men that are being dragged behind them. Because of this simple fact, May could only picture all of the clothing, jewellery and purfume / bath & body shops. This would be fun.

Not including the pokemon shops.

Her hands in the pockets of her red coat, clutching the rather thoughtful bundle Drew had given her for her own amusement, she almost forgot that she had a card to look for.

_'His game keeps getting better and better. . . '_

As soon as she set foot into the mall, past the glass rotating doors, she was assaulted with a large puff of warm air. She was instantly comfortable to instead drape her coat over her arm. Looking around and taking a few steps forward, the beauty of the mall was gasp-worthy.

It was bigger than it looked inside. It had wonderful marble floors, and far too many rooms to get lost in. The mall circulated air well, so the smells of coffee and deep fried foods were wafted to her.

Yes, the mall looked hideously expensive, but May was sure it was more than payed back. With all the attractive stores and the mob of people, how couldn't it be? Taking a few more steps forward and peering into the stores, the brunette also noticed that the items looked affordable.

She was probably right when she thought that she couldn't count all of the shops in this mall on her fingers.

Since she had no idea of the layout of the mall, she just wandered around, poking her head into the entrance of any stores that caught her eye. She so far passed shops that didn't interest her (men's clothing stores), but stopped infront of a bath & body shop.

The shop was a nice magenta. It had a colourful arrangement of flowers coating the walls, and filled with a beautifully blended scent of perfumes. Stepping inside and browsing the shelves, she couldn't read the print on the bottles. That made her feel like a kid again; she didn't know what she was buying, but she didn't care - as long as it smelt nice.

May had just reached the cherry blossom set of bath oils and perfumes when she stopped and put them down. It's not like it smelt bad, but she found something. . . interesting.

The voices that were, at best, in the row behind her.

She could clearly hear a boy with a strained voice whining. "But...but... I don't want to be in here! It's too girly!"

She laughed at the man's complaint, and only laughed more when she heard a deeper voice chime in.

"Yeah... all these weird smells are giving me a headache." That came from the man with a deeper voice. The same voice added, like an afterthought, "I wouldn't be caught _dead_ here. If someone sees me, I blame you."

Those voices made her remember her friends. May sighed, the feeling of loneliness creeping up on her. She had regretted leaving them back at her home with Max. She missed them. She pictured running back home and into their arms, but also frowned. She had made the choice to leave, so she should stick with her commitment.

But even the mighty force that was realization could pierce her thick skull. When it did, she got hit like a truck when she heard the next, more feminine voice.

"Ash, I thought I told you we'd only be in here a few minutes!"

Another, slightly softer voice spoke after the first.

"Yeah Paul... we are only going to be here for _five more minutes._ If your so worried about losing your 'manliness', then stop acting like a girl. Suck it up and accept it like a man."

Ash and Paul... that means that the two female voices belonged to non other than Misty and Dawn; in that order. Speak of the devil.

May almost sent the bottle nearest her hand flying as she whipped around, running to the isle behind her.

Misty was right about to smack some pateince into Ash, when she felt a presence behind her and turned. Everyone did.

"MAY!" chorused the two girls.

The brunette, redhead and blunette charged at eachother and ended in a group bear hug. How they missed eachother. The girls also decided this would be an appropriate time to have a '_moment_'. . . . Or as the two males called it, a scene.

In the hug, the three girls cried tears of joy and endlessly chattered about what had happened to them. Talking at the same time, they sounded like a pack of squirrels.

Ash and Paul looked blank as they wondered how they understood eachother.

Dawn and Misty explained that they were coming through LaRousse on the way to the next town, but heard the very shopping mall they were in was wonderful and stopped to buy presents. They wern't disappointed.

May explained that she was there because of two things; She wanted to try to be away from home for once to prove to her parents she was grown up. Second was a dare. She explained the whole dare to them.

_Flashback_

_May was deciding to try her hands at baking. If her mom could do it so well, how hard could it be? They were in the oven and she was getting impatient. After five minutes. She didn't know what else to do, but she didn't want to wander too far for fear of the cookies burning._

_Oddly enough, the phone rang. It was in the next room and her family were upstairs with Max. She thought that this would be a great way to pass the time. Picking up the phone, she answered a simle "Maple resendence."_

_The voice on the other line was...familiar to her somehow. She recognized it from the simple tone, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. She would have to keep them talking. However, after they finished their greetings and moved on to a more sarcastic comment, she knew very well who she was speaking to._

_"Hello May. Did you destroy anything yet?"_

_"Drew... for a matter of fact, I haven't. I'm less clumsy," she started, "and now am baking cookies!"_

_She didn't miss the chuckle she knew all so well. Truth be told, she began to miss it. _

_"I have a dare for you."_

_May's finger twirled the long cord as she leaned against the wall next to the table the phone was on. This was getting interesting._

_"You have a dare for me from how many miles away? How will you even know if I do it?"_

_Queue another chuckle. "Oh, believe me. I'll know."_

_May was getting antsy. He was in LaRousse, she Petalburg. Unless he had some special pair of binoculars, he wasn't seeing anywhere close. _

_"How? Spit out the dare already." she commanded._

_"If I am correct, the few months ago when we last spoke, you wanted a less...limited stab at independence. Right?"_

_May's face stretched into one of worry. It was no surprise that Drew was smart, but she had no idea what he was proposing her, more than daring. Either way he couldn't make her do something she didn't want to...but he could sure as hell trick her into it. The good thing was that even if he did trick her, he'd always make up for it. She certainly never left empty-handed. She gathered her wits about her and hoped for the best._

_"Yes."_

_"Come to LaRousse for Christmas."_

_May's half-lidded eyes shot open. What did he just say? She answered smartly._

_"What?"_

_He had the patience to repeat himself. After it, though, she was slightly surprised that he offered that it would be fun. She already held feelings for Drew at this time...how could she say no? Two deals in one; her much craved freedom AND Drew. What could be better?_

_"I'll do it."_

_Flashback Ends_

The redhead and blunette donned Mona Lisa smirks before looking at eachother. May knew better than to pester them, because no amount of begging would make them tell. She wisely gave up.

"Well May, wanna come shopping with us? No sense being alone."

Said girl nodded eagerly. "Sure!"

Paul and Ash looked horrified. The awful things two girls could come up with was more than enough. Now a _third_ to throw into the mix?

This would be a long day.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

The girls were walking around, trying to find more stores, while the boys were praying they could leave. The girls had purchased a bottle each of bath gels, and took their sweet time doing so. The two boys eagerly were on the ladies heels when they left. They were also thankful that they wern't carrying the bags. Atleast not yet.

With each store they passed, Ash complained that he wanted to go to the food court. Misty dismissed his pleas by saying "When we're done."

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

If Paul thought he was in hell before, now he was really screwed. He got into an arguement with Dawn about when they could leave. By doing that, he should have known he was only digging his six feet in the ground. Dawn thought up the _worst _torture known to man kind_:_

_Clothes shopping._

But not just any clothes shopping, oh no. Shoe shopping, too. And accessories.

While all the girls tried on clothes, half the time Dawn gave Paul dresses to wear to 'try on' for her. Regardless of how much he vehemently refused, Dawn would become red from anger. He knew that pissing her off even farther would mean him being pushed off the roof. He did was he was told.

He even 'broke in' a pair of shoes she decided to buy. They killed his feet when he walked around the store in them. She also made him try on necklaces. It was the worst ego kick when all three girls and Ash were laughing at you.

When the girls payed for all of their cloths, when Dawn called Paul's name to go with them, he followed her like an obedient puppy.

Lesson learned.

Except she appologised, knowing his obvious distress. In the middle of the mall, she pecked him on the cheek. He didn't care about the other people standing there, and wanted to carry her out of the mall to live happily ever after.

But his face remained stoic. He didn't know that Dawn could read his emotions by now though, so he remained blissfully ignorant. He would never admit his wishes to her, though.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

The girls had thought that maybe it was time for a little 'guy time'. They gave the two an hour to play with before meeting up at the food court.

Ash was delighted.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

The two boys made a beeline for an electronics store they passed hours ago. They were thankful that the girls had some mercy in them. After what Paul had to go through, he thought it was only fitting.

The boys could lovingly be in the large store for a looong time. It had everything from games to televisions. Ash and Paul bought a few video games and movies. They made sure to leave chick flicks **far away from their manly pile of movies. **

Paul also donned a devilish smile. He would get Dawn back. Oh, yes. Revenge is a sweet dish best served cold. To best fulfill his evil wishes, he bought a high-quality camera. It could take pictured and record. He would use it when Dawn was doing something embaressing, and caught unawares. This lovely idea excited him to no end. To rid himself of his evil excitement, he cackled.

After that ordeal, they ran through the store and played the game samplers. When done, they sat on the couches at the back and watched the TV's on sports channels. The big screen sports games made them make up for the manliness previously and futurely to be lost.

Ash, without Paul's notice, snuck the camera out of his grasp and filmed him cackling a second time when after the game, he told Ash his plan. He was enjoying himself capturing Paul burst into a well known, two word line of song. He also joined in the the parts of the hyena's. Ash started off for him.

"_Yes our teeth and ambitions are bared_..."

"**BE PREPARED**!"

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

The girls were having equal fun. They wandered through a lot of stores, specificly a large department store. They tried on all the free make-up samples at the desk and ran up and down the escalators in the opposite directions they went.

They even played hide and seek.

And pranked. Like Misty hid in a round rack of cloths, Dawn and May pretended to be browsing. When women came over and browsed the rack, Misty would always squeel, "Pick me! Pick me!" The women would jump and leave, after feeding the snickering of the girls.

Needless to say, their boundless energy and running around got them lost. They found their ways out, though, and went to the food courts. On the way there, they spoke about things girls do at sleepovers.

They were too busy to notice the shady character tailing them.

Two girls always turned on one of them until they got answers. This time though, it was only Dawn who spoke up. "So Misty, who do YOU like?"

Misty knew resistance was futile, because they had methods of coersion to force Misty to cooperate, or else.

Misty didn't want to know what the '_or else_' was.

"Ash," the redhead replied casually.

The girls expected that answer, so didn't pester her further. They could only guess the reasons why. They were good to one another, but still normal women. So things they did to eachother wern't as horrid as males made it seem. But it could be. But they had a strong system, so fights never lasted more than a few hours.

The figure's head purking up, they were waiting for this conversation. Women always loved to gossip and talk to one another about their lives, and intently listened to others, because they had a support group called 'other women'. Women were simply too chatty and loved details like this to leave men out of a conversation. It was a hot topic among them since they could all relate and had some experience with men in common. If there was anything you could count on a girl to talk about, it was that, no matter how old you were.

**(A/N: True fact, actually. It's great if you need to find anything out about someone's love affairs. Being a girl myself, I've had such convo's, too. So, If I have even 1 straight guy reading this, which I doubt, *Haha, you will miss my facts tiem*, if you EVER want to find out if a girl likes you, try to listen in on their friends, especially when the girl in question is around. You can count on the fact that it will be brought up or mentioned sometime. Hehe, sorry. Sharing knowledge is fun. It only makes my above statement true about how chatty we are XD Now, onward!)**

The figure payed VERY close attention to their next words. They were clad in a long Sherlock Holmes coat and hat, shading his face suspiciously. Even if he was caught, he couldn't be identified. Fortunetly for this man, these girls were so absorbed in their conversation that they didn't notice their shadow.

"Dawn? You?"

Dawn giggled. "Do you even have to ask? Did me pecking Paul in a very public place mean nothing to anyone?"

May's anxiety was building. She knew the whole purpose of this was to get her to admit her feelings. The other two girls' admissions were already known, and only said to start the conversation up. Dawn and Misty already knew the answer clear as day, and then some, but they wanted her to admit it... probably for the sake of admitting it to herself as much as them.

The brunette cringed when she heard her name. She could only watch the two girls team up on her for her admission. She sighed, deciding to not bother with a delay.

The shady boy was at his nerves end, holding his breath.

"Drew. That's the whole reason I came here. I was looking forward to spending time with him. I half got my wish."

The shady figure released his breath, and disappeared into the crowd as they neared the food court. A genuine smile found it's way to his face, but it was lost on the unknowing girls.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

Closing in on the food court, the girls notice Dawn zone out. She came back to it with a look of determination as soon as the three sat down at a table.

"Misty, how generous would you say Ash is?"

The fiery redhead regarded Dawn carefully. It was painfully obvious she wanted something. What that something was, however, was to be took into consideration.

"He is very generous." Misty was cautiously choosing her words. "Does he have something you want?"

"Yes. Extras of it, even."

Misty thought she knew what it was when she heard 'extras'. She could also guess what she wanted it for, and grinned. Yes, if there was anyone who could talk her way into putting it to good use, it was Dawn.

She grinned and nodded. "He would easily, then. Especially if you explain to him it's purpose. He'd be happy and hand it over in a heartbeat."

May smiled, too. She recalled hearing from Dawn recollections of her time with Ash and Paul in Sinnoh. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Dawn was in complete agreement with Ash when it came to this particular item. Dawn also talked about what happened for hours.

At Misty's friendly comfort at things going her way, she visibly relaxed.

May and Misty had already bought gifts for their respective crushes on the way. Dawn didn't since she had no idea what to give Paul. The idea occured to her just moments ago, and knew it would help Paul's conquest for power. She'd need to be willing to put up a fight to get her point across, though.

As well, if Paul felt even an inkling of emotion for her, he'd probably agree anyway.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

After the hour was up, Paul spotted the girls with ease and led Ash to them. Immediately he saw something wrong. Dawn was jittery at their approach. Don't get him wrong, the blunette was normally jumpy, but in a peppy, happy sort of way. It was unsettling to see nervousness across her face.

Before he could ask her what was wrong, she spoke first.

"Ash, can I talk to you for a moment? Privately?"

Paul didn't quite understand what happened next. Receiving a nod from Misty, Ash got up and walked well out of earshot with Dawn. He felt... oddly possessive. It wasn't something he was used to.

Among that, the other girls tried franticly to get him to converse with them about small talk. He wasn't stupid; he knew that whatever Dawn had in mind, it probably had something to do with him. After his torture, he just wasn't quite sure what.

Either way, he complied to the panicked girls bad attempts at a distraction. He figured he'd find out soon enough.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

Once that was over, the girls guarded the table like Fearow while the boys found something to eat. Paul shot Ash weird looks as he saw that he wanted to get something from _every_ shop. That was a bit ridiculous in his obsidian eyes. He had to calm Ash down, who adventually settled for tacos.

Walking back to the table with food in hand, the boys watched all the girls get up and leave, returning shortly after with their own food.

Lunch was rather awkward. No one had any clue what to talk to everyone else about, nor did anyone really want to talk to one another. They were busy with another task.

Everyone was there for the same purpose; Christmas shopping. So it was also expected to see everyone with some kind of flashy bag with a wrapped gift in it at their feet. The five friends eyed the gifts, easily guessing who had bought something for them, but at a loss at guessing what it was that they got eachother. In all the time it took them to eat, they spent that time trying to guess what their gifts were.

Once they were done eating, the silence was broken by May, who cleared her throat to gain attention.

"I need some help." She had all eyes on her.

"You see, Drew sent me here. We are having a game, or contest, or something I don't even know what it is anymore. Anyway, the point of it is to find little cards he leaves me. These cards have a clue on them which tells me where to look the next day. It goes on like that and will for each of the twelve days of Christmas. It is the sixth day now.

He doesn't specify where to look for it, but has given me clues on the possibilities of where I should go. I can't seem to figure out where to look. Would you guys be willing to help me?"

With a chorus of nods, May handed Misty the small card she had, to which the card was passed around the table so everyone could look at it until it found it's way back to whom had it first.

The order around the table was: May, Misty on her right, Ash, Paul, Dawn, and back to her.

Paul pulled out a map of the mall he kept in his pocket. The last thing he had wanted was to be lost, so he grabbed it on his way in. Looking at it and reading off the available services, he grinned and put the map back in his pocket.

He proudly announced, "I know where it's hidden."

May's face lit up. "Where?"

"Drew mentioned somewhere dark on the card. Said it was the darkest place in here. There's only one store like that here that could possibly fit the description; and it's on the second floor."

May was getting fed up and turned to Dawn, whispering her frustrations.

"Does he usually avoid answering your questions?"

Dawn laughed upon May's realization of what she had to put up with, and was glad she could share something. Glad her friend can now relate.

"Every day."

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

The four followed Paul, as he led them superiorly up to the second floor. With May's and Dawn's pestering (for added help, Paul cursed their support group), the only thing he promised them was that where they were going, they were definately going to enjoy it.

But, he also warned that one of them better have good eyesight, because Drew wasn't kidding when he said it was dark. Paul worried if they would find the card at all, and didn't want to claw at the walls for an endless amount of time. That, and wondered where he could hide something that could not be found unless you were looking for it. Paul's respect for Drew slowly rose.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

Paul crossed his arms as he let everyone else take in what they were facing. They all shouted like little kids.

"LASER TAG!"

They charged in, Dawn grabbing Paul by his elbow.

They all got suited up, and entered the room. They also hid their bags from any theifs behind the desk there.

Holding their laser guns like they were in the army, they shot everyone on the way while searching for that damn card. When Misty was turning around, she accidentally smacked May with her gun.

"Misty! What the hell was that for?"

May leaned against the wall, thoroughly defeated.

"Oh, whoops. Sorry May!"

Misty turned around and May saw that the look on her face was sincerely sorry. She melted and forgave her. How could she stay mad at her best friend?

Misty suddenly stared at May. May couldn't help but squirm under her scrutiny. When she saw Misty narrow her eyes, she got the impression that her friend could have been mad at her.

"Did I do something wrong?" She tried to ask, now wearing the look of appology.

"Move."

May looked at her, dumbfounded, but shuffled to the side. Misty stared at where she previously was standing.

Ok, so maybe she wasn't mad at her. What now?

The lighting was awful here, as it was supposed to be. There was just enough lighting to see where you were going, and that was it. Misty and May continuously got shot by the other players, the lights on their mock Kevlar vests going off, but they ignored the cheap shots. Something was going on, and May decided to find out what.

Right as she turned around, she noticed a cubby in the wall where she was leaning against. It was hard to tell, but it looked like someone might have littered there, and the litter was shining somehow... maybe reflecting the little light that was there? Or. . .

Misty reached her hand out and grabbed whatever was in it. Pulling her hand out, May saw a piece of lavender paper held between her fingers like ninja stars. On the outside of the folded card, in surprisingly glow-in-the-dark green ink, it clearly read 'May'.

Misty grinned and May reflected it. Misty had no hesitance in handing the card over to May. Now all they had to do was find the others. The round wasn't up yet, so they had time to play...time to get revenge on the people who earlier shot them. And that they did.

After the two girls had gotten revenge, they located their three missing companions with relative ease. It wasn't hard to find them from Ash's laughs and Dawn's giggles. Stepping downstairs, they soon saw what they missed.

Dawn and Ash were in an all out battle. And not just any laser tag battle, the best to have actually been seen. They did little shooting, but mainly were battling it out with the guns themselves. Just like they were pirates armed with swords. Paul was standing off to the side, shaking his head at them.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

By the time they left, the sun was beginning to set. The lunch was later in the day, and because it was winter, the sun set earlier. Now May truly understood the meaning of 'Parting is such sweet sorrow'. The girls all cried and hugged again.

"Oh, Misty, Dawn, Ash, and even you, Paul... would you stay? Just until Christmas and you could leave after? I miss you all so much... and will even more if you leave."

Misty and Dawn looked at eachother skeptically. They wanted to, but... they didn't quite know what to say. They knew Ash and Paul were impatient to get moving. They'd have to have a long talk over that. Maybe they could convince them since no competitions started until after Christmas so competetors could spend time with their families.

The two girls looked back at May and said in unison, "We'll see."

When May watched them leave, she felt pretty bad. She tried hard not to cry. She had a small comfort, though...

A gloved hand landed on her shoulder, making her jump. She turned around, and was staring into a chest and neck of a man. Looking up, she saw Drew, who then flicked his hair. She dared think that she missed that, too.

Drew's eyes gave away that he understood her situation. His words were calm and soothing. "I could walk you back to the Pokecentre..."

She took him up on his offer.

On the way back, Drew tried to start a conversation. "Did you have fun today?" May's deep blue eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly. "Of course!"

Drew smiled at her obviously pleased expression. He was also happy that she got to meet up with her friends... those same friends he managed to call in. He was relieved they lied on his behalf. It was for May, after all. He also sent Flygon over to get them to LaRousse personally. He was a courteous host.

May felt exceedinly special. Drew was amazingly nice to her this evening. Not only had he offered his arm, but he even carried her shopping bags. _Willingly. _What a guy!

She also had to admit... she should have felt bad, but she felt very proud as all manners of fangirls stared at her with envy. She wanted to laugh at her luck!

When the two stood infront of the Pokecentre doors, they faced eachother and Drew looked down into May's eyes. She looked up at him, a faint blush on her cheeks. He thinks she was guessing what happened next. He decided to comply... kind of.

He leaned down and half closed his eyes as he slowly got closer to May. May felt even more giddy as the fangirls looked like they wanted to kill her. She leaned up and half-lidded her eyes, too.

You could imagine her disappointment when Drew stood back up, walked off waving and said "Tomorrow" over his shoulder. The nerve of that boy.

Either way, she wasn't complaining. The death stares still on her, she picked up the bags Drew had put down and walked back to her room.

**xXxXxXxXxXxX**

**Woohoo! Suddenly done! I'm proud of myself, and you should be, too. *Joking!* **


	7. On the Seventh Day

**I don't own Pokemon. And sadly, I also don't own the jokes of the wonderful comic (among other things), Greg Behrendt.**

Once May was dressed in the morning, the brunette skipped down the steps to the lobby of the pokecentre. The events from the previous night had left her in a good mood. Understandably so.

Once May was in the lobby, she looked out of the fogged windows. She was surprised to see how heavily it was snowing. She could tell that if nothing happened, she'd be snowed in by lunch. What'd there to do in a pokecentre? For a whole day? Alone?

May suddenly remembered that she wasn't alone. If it was going to be a snow day, that means... Oh yes. Her friends were stuck in here, too. But... that wasn't enough for May. She had something else in mind. She took out her Match phone (**A/N: Is that what it's called? Oh well. It only says 'Match Call', but calling is a verb, so that doesn't work. We'll just go with phone.)** and quickly dialed a certain chartreuse-haired boy over. And right didn't care what time it was, she just knew that if she's being stuck, she's dragging Drew with her.

Fortunetly for May, the called boy was an early-riser, so she didn't catch him in a bad mood. He complied, and tried to guess what May was up to. Stuffing his coats pockets with his gloves, he hung up his coat and scarf.

"What is it May?"

She had purposely pretended to be frantic and demand that he got to the pokecentre right that instant. She also said it couldn't wait, and she'd tell him what it was when he got there. Well, he was there now. And only a half an hour had passed. She had roughly three hours to kill. What kind of a distraction lasts three hours? She though that she might have come up with something by the time Drew got there, but she came up with nothing.

Uh oh.

May started to sweat. Judging by how nervous she was, Drew thought something serious had really happened. "May..." He called her name and got nothing. Fear slowly started to rise as she stood dead still, eyes darting about.

She was glancing around for something, anything to save her. Anything that would provide a rather long distraction. Nothing caught her eyes but the plain white walls of the building she was in. Her eyes suddenly landed on a closet, and she got an idea.

"I challenge you!"

Drew looked at her with the oddest of expressions. Challenge him? He thought she was in trouble. Some form of danger. Did she really call him there for a competition? He wasn't having it, but thought he'd play along anyway.

"What kind of a challenge?"

"A...a board game challenge!" May suddenly yanked the nearest game out from a stack so quickly that the pile barely had time to react. It didn't topple in the least.

Drew's eyebrow raised. So...she called him over to play a game of Monopoly. Interesting. He watched her realize what she had grabbed and put it back. He could only guess May's relief when her friends suddenly appeared coming down the stairs. May acted like she hadn't seen them yesterday.

"Guys!" she captured everyone in a group hug. They looked confused, naturally, but returned the hug. All but Paul. He slipped under her arm and went to stand by Drew. While May was trying to focus on anything but her crush, Paul leaned over to Drew to whisper.

"What happened to her?"

Drew shook his head and answered honestly.

"I have no idea."

Once the hug broke up, May beamed. She had suddenly came up with an idea! Why didn't she think of it sooner? Group games!

She rummaged through the same closet she dug through moments earlier to pull out a whole notebook of paper. On her way back, she dropped her hand to pick up the pen on the table between a circle of one-seat couches.

The reaction from the group was mixed. Paul looked unamused, Ash was confused, Misty had a small grin, and Dawn's eyes were wide with excitement. She couldn't read what Drew felt. "Can anyone guess what game we're going to play?"

Dawn cheered. "Pictionary!"

Misty was ready to throw the pen to the ground. The group had broken into sub-groups, May with Drew, Dawn with Paul, and her. . . .With Ash. Not that she doesn't like Ash... it's just that she wished she had someone who's more...quick. Long story short, Ash was impossible to play Pictionary with. Try as she might, Ash could never guess what she was drawing for one reason; his imagination made him relate the picture to the most random ideas; some of them not even related.

That and what she got was kind of hard to draw.

When Misty had picked up the card from the table of what to draw, she was expecting some kind of animal... not a word. How do you draw a word? The word she happened to pick up was "dry". Misty also thought that word was kind of ironic, her being a retired _**water**_ pokemon gym leader. Soo... how do you draw 'dry'?

Misty thought of a common area that Ash would routinely see to help him picture water. Instantly, she thought 'bathroom'. Ok, now, what in the bathroom constantly gets wet and dry? Well, a lot of things. However, the first item to come to mind was a towel.

Misty drew a towel on the paper. Just a simple cloth. She even tried to make it look fuzzy, for Ash's benefit. With that said, to try to give the illusion of the towel being dry, she drew a few water droplets coming from the towel. She then proceeded to draw a circle and line through the towel with water droplets, like you'd see on a 'No Smoking' sign.

That was a decent description, yes? Misty thought so. With that said, she turned the paper she had and showed Ash the picture.

Ash stared at the picture a long time. Like he was absorbing every detail to try to figure out what Misty was hinting at. When a look of realization came across his face, Misty had thought he had it and was about to give the right answer. However, she wasn't holding her breath, knowing this was Ash she was playing with.

"No water!"

Misty moved her hand in a circular motion, indicating for more detail than that. Though she was impressed with how close Ash had gotten, she couldn't help but worry if Ash would ever get the correct answer. When a look of puzzlement came across Ash's face, Misty waited... and waited... and waited. He had nothing. All Misty could do was sit and wait until he felt he wanted to try again.

**XxXxXxXx**

The blunette scribbled happily away at the page. Her game with Paul was very progressive. Though Paul's voice was monotone when he gave her the answers, clearly stating he did not want to participate in the game to begin with, he still got all of the answers. It was so easy for her. She had gotten all cards telling her to draw animals. An ovular body with a few crucial details had Paul instantly guessing the right answer.

She saw Misty and Ash, and kind of felt sorry for them. Ash was a bit slow, and Misty got hard cards. Though, that wasn't her fault. Paul gave her strange looks when she giggled here and there resulting from that couple, but she still worked non the less.

Paul was getting bored quickly. All of the pictures were too easy. He wanted something more difficult, challenging... something Dawn might be able to help him with. Always carrying teasers in his pack to help him stay sharp, he took out a book of Sudoku. Stealing the pen from Dawn when she was done drawing, for nothing might she add, he motioned her over to help.

Paul thought Sudoku was a lot more fun when Dawn was leaning over his shoulder, guessing the most random words to fit into the boxes.

**XxXxXxXx**

Drew was having the worst time of all. He noted that he was in a similar position to Misty. Poor girl. He now understood her frustration. The more Drew had picked up cards, and heard May's ideas, he began to think that this game should not have been called Pictionary, but rather "Well, Here's What I Would Have Drawn".

When May had explained the rules of the game to Drew, Drew had imagined that the game would be about you drawing things that are in your ability to draw. But he also understood that since it was a game, it had to be challenging in some way. He, however, was not anticipating this.

The first word Drew had gotten was 'few'. He was at a loss with that one, all on it's own. Fortunetly for him, May was patient, and had probably been through this before, so she gave him the vital time to think.

When Drew finally did think of something, he scribbled down three circles. He didn't know what to expect from May, but he could only hope she would magically be correct.

When he held his breath and turned the page around, he looked at May, seeing a puzzled expression. After a few moments, May shrugged at him. Nothing. What he drew didn't even qualify for a sound. Nothing like "Mm-mm..." Drew could basically hear crickets.

And then Drew realized the problem. How would May know that it is a few, unless there are also many? May had nothing to contrast it with. So, the green haired boy drew many circles. To be specific, he drew seven more off to the side.

Suddenly, May's eyes light up and Drew is sure they are on the path to victory, when May shouts "Grapes!"

And curses on him, they _did_ look like grapes.

Drew tries to not have an emotionless face, because he knew that if he did, May would only continue to repeat the word she had just said until she got his nod of approval. So to combat this, Drew tried to give May the expression of, "Your wrong, try again, take the concept further."

But May didn't want to take the concept further. She just kept saying "Grapes, Grapes, Grapes..." like some kind of mantra.

Drew shakes his head. And then, Drew soon realizes that suddenly this isn't about the game anymore, but it's about their friend / relationship split. The first thing that comes to his mind is:

_What did I say, what did I do._ So, Drew is having a mini-crisis trying to figure out what the heck is happening.

Then May began to use a tone with him. May coloured her words with a nice tone, that had it's own implied meaning. May was using a tone that says "I am disappointed in you as a person." The words she used that tone with were, "I don't know what that is." Every word but the last is said quickly, but when May got to the 'is', she sounded out the 's' clearly, like a snake.

As the time is ticking, May uses her next idea. A rapid succession of the phrase "Draw something else." A fantastic new idea that has just occured to her. "Draw something else, draw something else, draw something else" over and over...

And in Drew's mind, it sounded like he was suddenly in some kind of Pictionary rave where the DJ kept spinning the disk to put those words on repeat.

Drew was losing his mind. He would have drawn something else if he could, but just _what_ is there left to draw? He eyed the pencil and considered stabbing himself in the eye with it. He wouldn't have to listen to May that way, but...

Oh yeah. He'd just be sent to a room down the hall, still in the same building. So much for that idea.

Drew had no ideas. So to try to get his frustration across, he drew the same thing harder. Darker. Hoping May would get the point.

Drew loved May, but right now he wanted nothing more than to stop playing.

May granted him that wish, but had something else in mind.

Everyone noticed, at the same time, that Dawn and Paul were gone. Done with the Sudoku. When they looked around, they saw them outside, playing in the very large piles of snow. Throwing snowballs and then building a snowman.

Drew ushered May outside, thinking she would be less agrivated if she got some fresh air. It worked, and it turned May playful. But, it still didn't go as Drew planned.

For unamusing May, Drew got what was coming to him. But atleast May gave a warning.

"Heads up, grasshead!"

_boom._

Drew got blasted in the face with a snowball. Before continuing to join May and the others for an afternoon of fun in the snow, he uttered a few words.

"May, just see what happens tomorrow..."


	8. On the Eighth Day

May knew that when you were rich, you did a lot of fancy things, but to dream something and to live it were two entirely different things.

Said brunette pinched herself to see if she was dreaming.

She wasn't.

When she had woken up, May found an envelope half way under her door. Remembering what she had done to Drew the previous evening, she was surprised that he had chosen such a...quiet method. When Drew gets a snowball to the face, bad things happen.

May expected a parade to wake her up, with a band playing her out of the hallway.

When May opened the envelope, she found a fancy piece of paper. How can paper be fancy, you ask? It looks official: it had beautifully printed vines creeping up the sides and edges of the paper. Not only that, but the letter itself was typed. When May saw it wasn't hand written, she thought something must be up. Is this Drew's way of pranking her?

Reading the note, she found it was not a note, but rather an invitation. Drew had sent her an invitation to go to an exclusive business meeting, and after a ball.

'_Oh...my...'_ She thought. May had never gone to something like THIS before. Much less how upscale she could tell it was going to be. It was a black tie event with all of the business men and women who would be attending... with a creative twist. Masks were required. For the first portion AND ball portion, a mask was required because the theme was a masquerade.

With this knowledge, May walked down the stairs to the lobby of the pokecentre to find a patient man in bright clothes. He had so many suitcases, May wondered how long it took him to drag them all in there. Once he spotted it, however, May soon learned. This man didn't look like it, but he was very strong.

May had never met this man before in her life. All she could tell from him was that he was very into fashion.

May also learned that he was sent there for her. Those suitcases had clothes. She was to choose herself a dress and a mask.

The man had pushed May all the way up the stairs and back to her room. Once walking inside the room, he layed out multiple dresses on the bed.

And here May is now.

All of the dresses were absolutely stunning. They all looked equally expensive. But it wasn't only dresses; there was also heels, and jewellery.

May spent ten whole minutes picking through and looking at the dresses, but only one had caught her eye; a deep sapphire blue shirtwaist dress. When she stepped into the bathroom and tried it on, she found it also fit on her perfectly; like it was made for her.

May felt like Cinderella.

The bodice was not too tight or too loose. The bodice had soft laces in a serpentine pattern on the front, but only a few on the back. The skirt part of it rested on her hips, while the rest of it trailed to her ankles. When she put on the matching blue heels and a sterling silver necklace with multiple sapphires on different levels hanging from her neck, she felt like royalty.

And that was the problem. _She felt like royalty._

May didn't think she was deserving of this treatment. Business and balls totally wasn't her world. Coordinating was. May now wondered how Drew was even spending time on coordinating when he had so many... other things to do. That are more status-building than coordinating, too.

Then May began to think. What would she do in this function? She had nothing to contribute to this event; if anything she was brought as a...date. When talking to Drew, if she even got to talk to Drew at all, she would constantly have to keep in mind her manners. That means she would have to be formal and not tell too much about herself to others who belonged in that scene. She would probably be looked down on a lot, too.

Well, maybe, maybe not.

Then it made sense.

This event **was** Drew's way of punishment.

This was going to be a long day.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

When May stepped outside of the pokecentre, earning many glances along the way at the fancily dressed woman in blue, holding an equally blue clutch under her arm, she stopped infront of a limo.

Was May really expected to get in one of those?

It _was_ really cool looking, though...

And May did always want to go in one...

The chauffer opened the door for May, and she climbed in and made herself comfortable. If she was going to be tortured for hours on end at a boring business meeting, then she might as well enjoy the little things while she still had little things to look at.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

When May entered the large ballroom, she was denied her wish of entering unannounced. The second she stepped through those doors, the chauffer had loudly declared her presence. Standing in the doorway, all she could do was wave shyly.

Being greeted wasn't _so_ bad. She had expected many hateful glances.

Not one in the large crowd was hateful.

However, she did get looks of jealousy from the younger women, smiles from the older women, bows from the younger men, and uninterested side-glances from the self-important and older men. Which, for the record, made up the majority of the men who attended.

When everyone turned back to their own affairs after her introduction, May sat at a table on the left side of the room, where the tables where, and sat in her assigned seat at the table closest to the far corner of the room.

It quickly became evident to the girl that Drew had not done her any favors here. His seat was to the right of hers, which was painfully empty. Because Drew was nowhere in sight, May had to speak with the other occupants at the table...which she was less than pleased about.

All were the older and self important men. While May smiled outwardly to them, she was screaming at him in her head. The mental screaming drowned out the soft classical music that was being played for the guests.

She came to it again when a grey-haired man offered May his hand. May accepted his gesture for a handshake.

His shake was a bit too firm for her liking. May wanted to furrow her eyebrows at the obvious show of dominance, but let it go, remembering where she was, and who she was representing.

It got harder and harder to do that as time wore on.

By late afternoon, she was ready to kill every man at the table. Drew was still nowhere in sight, but the men kept her company... sort of.

They talked, but May's mind was elsewhere. They were not directly speaking to her after all, but rather just to anyone who was listening. It also wasn't talking so much as it was rambling. What got on May's nerves pretty quickly was the fact that the only thing each man talked about was himself, and his own acheivements.

She noticed that her enviornment was very ritzy and as upscale as she was treated. The soft carpetting was a deep majenta, reminding May of, what in her mind made sense, could be raspberry wine. It had bright yellow stars sewed into the patterns of it, as well, with very small dots of green.

The walls didn't have too much colour to them, but May expected that. The walls were made of marble, and were coloured a light beige. May pictured someone spattering coffee on the walls for that particular shade.

The tables were all identicle, including the one May was sitting at. The wood was a very deep brown, but very smooth from the copious amounts of polyurethane coated on it. They had tablecloths on them, of course, which were a rich emerald green. On top of this cloth layed empty plates not yet served, and always full glasses. What was in the glass differed from person to person. The most common drink, though, was a very expensive brand of champagne. May normally didn't approve of the consumption of alcohol, as light as it was, but decided to let it go just this once.

Maybe it would loosen the stuffy people up. She herself nursed a diet soda.

Then there was the people. Oh, the people. Everyone was, without a doubt, dressed up to the nine; and why wouldn't they be? Meetings like this were their lives. May thought that was kind of sad, if this is what they did all day. Sad as it might be, though, May had to admit that it seemed to work. The clothes everyone in the room sported definately didn't come cheap.

Men were sporting immaculate black dress shoes, so polished they reflected even the smallest beams of light. They proudly wore black suits and ties, with slicked back hair. All the women wore flowing silk gowns, with countless layers of gems on their necks and fingers. May found them a bit prissy, though, and equally as stuffy as the men; they wore their hair back in tight buns, not a hair out of place.

That, to May, screamed 'High-Maintenance.'

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

May had been walking back and forth the entire morning and afternoon between her seat and the snack table with cute things like finger sandwiches and punch for the more.. younger guests. The dainty women kept their distance from such 'distasteful', as they called it, hors d'oeuvres, so May had the table mainly to herself, save for one or two of the younger men. Half the time May wasn't particularly hungry, but excused herself to go and lean against the table, looking like she was doing something, anything, to get away from her seat.

It was a very long day.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

By the time Drew did finally arrive, it was early evening and the appetizers were beginning to be passed around from table to table. May was thankfully at her seat when Drew arrived, When his presence was anounced and May turned around, she thought that was the first time she had ever seen Drew himself in a suit. While his parents sauntered over to another table, Drew made a bee-line for May.

On his way there, May saw that in comparison to the other gentlemen at the event, Drew was three-quarters to half the size of them, but oddly enough, figuratively stood twice as tall. His calm expression revealed his confidence, along with his posture of a straight back, shoulders back, chest slightly up, and his head held high, as well as his long strides. The younger ladies swooned at him, but he didn't notice or could care less. His eyes were locked across the room on the silhouette of a certain brunette haired girl.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

Upon reaching the table, Drew shook hands with the other four men sitting with May. He didn't need to shake May's hand, for his smile was enough. Taking a seat next to May, he was just in time to take a selection of the appetizers as the waitor came around to them.

May was appauled, though she did well to hide it. She had heard jokes about the weird things rich people dared to put in their mouths, but never actually believed it.

She was sorely mistaken.

May learned that, as it turns out, rich people really **do** eat things like Magicarp eggs. Eww.

Said girl settled for a light salad.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

The other men ate hardily, but Drew poked at his salad. He wanted to try to appologise to May in some way without words, so he took the same thing she did. After all, imitation is the most sincerest form of flattery. Luckily, May got the point he was trying to make and smiled in responce.

While the four men talked amongst themselves, Drew took the opportunity to whisper to May.

"How was the day here?"

May was simply too happy that Drew was finally there to be mad at him.

"I think this is the most boring event I've ever been to in my life."

Drew quietly chuckled. "Payback sucks, but the punishment should fit the crime, which this did not. So I have to say, I'm s...so.." Drew finally choked it out. "Sorry."

May knew he didn't say that often, if at all, so felt honored he even tried.

"I forgive you."

Drew tucked a strand of hair behind May's ear.

"And I know, these are quite boring. I don't even like them myself, but when your family is, in a sense, famous, this is what you have to do."

May's nose twitched in curiosity. "I know that torture wasn't the only reason you brought me here. I want the truth. What was the main reason?"

Drew grinned, not at all donning the look of a deer in the headlights. He decided for now that it would be best to not answer. He didn't have to anyway, as the pasta and other dinner foods were being served.

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

When dinner was over, the hired band had played louder music, signalling the beginning of the leisure half of the gathering. May had her mask around her neck the whole time, but now put on her black mask, to reveal to anyone who looked, what her mask was.

The mask was a small one, only enough to cover her eyes. There was no stick, but a band that securely held it in place. The sides were shaped like butterfly wings, eyes as deep as the ocean itself peering out from beneath it. Drew was quite pleased, and pulled on his white hawk mask, covering his eyes and nose.

Drew had offered his hand like a gentleman, and when May accepted it, like he knew she would, he whisked her away to dance. May chose that moment to bring up the topic again.

"What was your other reason?"

Drew's lips turned to thin lines, which May could only guess out of what, but she knew by the tone in his voice.

"To give you a good sense of what you might go through. I will tell you this twice; and this time is the first."

May cocked her head to the side. Drew twirled her and pulled her back, May attuning to his grace. She was with every step, and never missed a beat. Right as the song was ending, Drew thought he'd play her game.

"I know you may not like these gatherings, but understand that, as earlier said, neither do I. But sometimes there is just no choice. You could say I pulled you here for a reason and be purely right."

Drew's next words were barely above a whisper, and May had to lean in to hear. The message was received; she was to listen. Carefully. As he said them, the words rung clearly in her mind.

"_This is what it means to be with me."_

**xXxXxXxXxXx**

The two danced until midnight, and just before the strike of twelve o'clock, as Drew spun her, May let go of his hand and lost herself in the crowd, slipping out the door and out of his notice. She sent her message clearly then.

Drew searched the crowd of people for May, but it was no use. Everyone was wearing masks, and though May's was unique, there were many similarly shaped. She had managed to slip right between his fingers, but he had no regrets. He knew where she had gone, so it didn't matter anyway. He took that moment to walk home. His parents could figure out soon enough where he had walked off to. He had stayed as long as he needed to.

On the cold walk home, Drew didn't feel the cold, nor did he hear the crunch of fresh snow beneath his feet. The snow was coming down hard, so it would be hard to see any figure that was in it. It did not deter Drew, because he knew where his home was without looking. He also knew where the pokecentre was.

A grin spread across his face as he thought of what she was trying to tell him.

In her own way, she had told him that she accepts that lifestyle, but she also has her own. She accepts the two merging, but not without consequence.

Drew knew this long ago, and showed not a hint of having problems with the idea. He was ready to face the dilemmas, one day at a time, whenever they presented themselves.

His grin only grew at the bottom line of her silent statement. Their actions both shared the same implied meaning.

_I understand._

**xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx**

I have a feeling my writting style is showing change here. For better or worse I wonder?


End file.
